Friday, June 23, 2017

What exactly does the CBC want?

By Charles Brooks

Less than two weeks left with the Obama presidency, members
of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) discussed their plans to be more
aggressive with the incoming president, Donald Trump. Well, after just six
months of Trump being in office the CBC has seen enough as CBC Chairman Rep.Cedric Richmond (D-LA) rejected the president’s invitation to meet with him at
the White House. In his letter to the president and in subsequent media
interviews, Rep. Richmond outlined specific concerns around the Trump
administration’s plans to dismantle healthcare, resurrect the drug war,
disregard consent decrees, and implement billion dollars in cuts to Pell
Grants. The CBC Chair also reminded the
president of his failure to respond to outreach to him of eight letters and a
policy report submitted during their first meeting back in March. “Through an objective assessment, we have
seen no evidence that your administration acted on our calls for action, and we
have in fact witnessed steps that will affirmatively hurt black communities,”
wrote Rep. Richmond. In the letter as well as in a number of media interviews
explaining their decision, the CBC Chair dismissed the would-be meeting as a
“social gathering”.

I think we are clear on what the CBC does not want but what
they do want and the path to get there is not as equally clear. This is disturbing particularly considering
their first meeting with the president back in March was viewed as “productive”
and “frank” with a commitment for more regularly scheduled meetings to discuss
policy issues. So the first – if not,
obvious – question is what exactly is being accomplished by not sitting with
the president to address the issues and concerns they’ve outlined in their letters and policy paper? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to meet with the
president to discuss these critical issues?
Which brings us to the next question, what is their next move - or in
other words what is their Plan B? Well they did submit an alternative federal budget for the FY2018 as they’ve always done since 1981 with little fanfare.
But realistically, what are the chances that a Republican majority in Congress
will act or much less debate the merits of the CBC’s alternative budget?

This apparent public display of defiance by the CBC actually
raises more concerns about their effectiveness and, yes their relevance. For
eight years, they served with a muted voice while providing a protective shield
against Republican attacks on President Obama. Equally troubling was their
refusal to endorse one of their own, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md) for the open
Senate seat in Maryland. And then we learned about their ties to corporate
interests during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Authors of the CBC Report Card 2016, Glen Ford and Patrice
Johnson brings into question the CBC’s leadership with an extensive analysis of
ten key votes between September 2015 and September 2016. Their report states the following: “What the
CBC Monitor Report Cards bring into focus is that the Black Caucus is simply an
appendage of Democratic leadership in the House. It has no independent
existence or policy, and is therefore not a leadership institution for Black
America. Rather, it is the Black face of the Democratic Party. Only about
one-third of its members (the 14 that voted against the internet “terror” bill,
last December, for example) are willing to break with their party on occasion.”

for

In his letter to the president, Rep. Richmond left the door
open for the President to invite individual CBC members for future meetings
with him and cabinet officials.

Discussion Question:

Should individual members of the CBC
pursue individual meetings with the president? What plan of action should the
CBC pursue in this age of Trump?